Ukraine has sent a Russian platoon commander’s case to court over the alleged 2023 torture of two civilians in occupied Oleshky, moving the prosecution into the judicial stage, prosecutors said.
The Kherson Oblast Prosecutor’s Office said the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) completed a special pretrial investigation before prosecutors submitted the indictment Nov. 12. The commander is accused of cruel treatment of civilians and violations of the laws and customs of war. Prosecutors say the events occurred in June 2023, after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed and flooding affected Oleshky.
Russian soldiers detained the two unarmed residents while patrolling the city, according to prosecutors. The office said their 10-day confinement was in a ninth-floor apartment where food, water and sanitation were inadequate.
Prosecutors allege that one man was questioned about local volunteers and his nephew, then beaten and shocked with electric wires attached to his fingers. Prosecutors say the commander looped an electric cable around the resident’s neck, choking him until he passed out.
The second resident was suspected of recording Russian firing positions, prosecutors said. They allege he was also beaten and shocked. He sustained fractures to 11 ribs, his sternum and both sides of his jaw; infected wounds developed into gangrene, leading to the amputation of a finger, according to the prosecution.
The accused commanded a reconnaissance platoon in Russia’s 247th Air Assault Regiment, prosecutors said. The SBU and the Kherson Oblast Prosecutor’s Office conducted the investigation with operational support from the State Border Guard Service’s 79th Border Detachment. The allegations have not been decided by a court.
